The large Morse family lived in Wawarsing, Ulster County,
New York. With such a common surname, it is not always easy to trace all its
members. Recently I was made aware of
the 1909 obituary of Mary E Morse Corbin published in the Kingston Daily
Freeman. Mary was the daughter of William Morse and Anna Peck, the 2nd of
their 9 children. Her death notice mentioned the following family members,
referring to them as “surviving members of her father’s family”; in fact they were
her siblings. Her father was also one of
9 children and I will report on them in another post.
A recap of those mentioned include:
Her deceased husband Albert
1827-1900
His brother Isaac Corbin 1830-1888
Her 6 surviving siblings:
Mrs Thomas Smart in Penn = Jane
1829-1914
Recently
widowed and the mother of 12 !
Leonard
Morse in California = 1831-1914
out west since mid 1860s, widower no children
John
Morse in Ellenville = 1834-1915 married, 8 children
Mrs W W Miller in NYC = Alice 1846-1915
twice widowed, 2 children
Mrs Belle Johnston of Staten Island = Isabelle 1851-1915
Mrs Seth Catlin of New Jersey = Emma
1843-1940, 5 children
Her other siblings were Edgar 1839-1887 who died unmarried
in Nashville, TN (where their uncle George ran successful stockyard operations)
and Addie 1838-1893 wife of Dr John Jackson Ward, 1 son.
Some of these siblings had married before 1850 and were never listed
in the census with their parents, disappeared from NY (like Leonard) or females
married several times becoming hard to identify and locate.
This newspaper item helped me piece together all of Mary’s
siblings. I always find it helpful to flush out every person listed in a death
notice.
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